Ulster's lesson for the Middle East: don't indulge extremists
Advocating the Northern Irish "model" has become a popular pastime. In conflicts as different as those in Spain, Sri Lanka and the Middle East, the key players are now urged to consider the undoubted success in Northern Ireland and follow our example. This is hardly surprising, but I am concerned about how that example is described.A few months ago Peter Hain, the former Northern Ireland secretary of state, described it as "the development of dialogue at every level", a dialogue "delivering the most obdurate constituencies", focusing on "key leaders". It also warned that "preconditions can strangle the process at birth". Many others have followed and urged unconditional dialogue with the most intransigent - "dancing with wolves", it has been called.… Seguir leyendo »